• Level 4: Long-Form

level 4: long-form improv course

This is where things get really exciting!!! You’ve done our level 3 scenes course, or a similar amount somewhere else, now it’s time for LONG-FORM!!!

what is long-form?

Long-form is awesome! Short-form and scenes are where you learnt how the improv car works and how to drive it. Long-form is where you now take that car on a joy ride!

Instead of standalone one-off scenes you’ll now be connecting multiple scenes together and traveling through time and space with reoccurring characters, themes and patterns to make one amazing multi-scene show inspired by just one suggestion!

This is where the group really unleashes their collective imagination on stage!

It’s exciting stuff!

what's Hoopla's long-form style?

Freedom! Passion! Emotion! Play!

We like to improvise from the heart!

We hope to enable you and the team to form a group mind, to find the FUN together, to focus on the relationship in scenes and then explore emotional patterns and themes across the show.

To help this you’ll be learning techniques like edits, tags, openings, scene-work, how to connect scenes, how to escalate emotions, how to deepen relationships & characters, how to spot patterns and how to put this all together to form an awesome show.

We experiment and find new things together, to help us create the future of long-form improv in the UK!

next available dates

Next Available Dates in Warren Street / Euston:

Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 29th May 2024 with Greg Birks, 6pm – 8pm, plus show on Wednesday 24th July 2024. BOOK


Every Tuesday for 8 weeks from Tuesday 26th March 2024 with Claudia Novati, 8pm – 10pm, plus show on Tuesday 21st May 2024. SOLD OUT

  • 6pm – 8pm / 8pm – 10pm.
  • Warren Street or Euston.
  • £230.
  • As above.
£230. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £130 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Shaftesbury Avenue / Tottenham Court Road:

Every Saturday afternoon for 8 weeks from Saturday 11th May 2024 with Ayla Pengelly-Moore, plus show on Monday 1st July 2024. BOOK

  • 2pm – 4pm.
  • Tottenham Court Road or Holborn.
  • £230.
  • As above.
£230. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £130 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in London Bridge:
London Bridge venues, see booking links below for addresses.

Every Monday for 8 weeks from Monday 3rd June 2024 with Liam Brennan, plus show on Tuesday 23rd July 2024. BOOK


Every Monday for 8 weeks from Monday 16th September 2024 with Stephen Davidson, plus show on Monday 11th November 2024. BOOK


Every Tuesday for 8 weeks from Tuesday 3rd September 2024 with James Irving, plus show on Wednesday 23rd October 2024. BOOK


Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 3rd April 2024 with Melissa Parker, plus show on Tuesday 28th May 2024. SOLD OUT

  • 7pm – 9pm weekdays, 2pm – 4pm weekends.
  • London Bridge/Borough.
  • £230.
  • As above.
£230. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £130 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Bank/Liverpool Street/Fenchurch Street:

Every Thursday for 8 weeks from Thursday 11th April 2024 with Susan Harrison, plus show on Monday 3rd June 2024. SOLD OUT


Every Thursday for 8 weeks from Thursday 25th January 2024 with Ayla Pengelly-Moore, plus show on Thursday 21st March 2024. SOLD OUT


Every Monday for 8 weeks from Monday 29th January 2024 with Liam Brennan, plus show on Thursday 21st March 2024. SOLD OUT

  • 7pm – 9pm weekdays, 11am – 1pm / 2pm – 4pm weekends.
  • Bank, Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, Aldgate.
  • £230.
  • As above.
£230. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £130 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Kings Cross:

Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 22nd May 2024 with Nick Oram, plus show on Thursday 11th July 2024. SOLD OUT

  • 7pm – 9pm.
  • King’s Cross.
  • £230.
  • As above.
£230. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £130 once the course starts.

the most experienced long-form teachers in the UK

Many of our long-form teachers were the first in the UK to train with US improv theatres.

Most of our teachers have trained with iO, Second City or The Annoyance in Chicago, as well as multiple other theatres across the world.

Katy Schutte was one of the first people to bring long-form to the UK and has been teaching it full time for over 15 years! Back when the rest of us at Hoopla were improv babies Katy was traveling to Second City and iO in Chicago to learn and bring long-form to the UK for the first time.

It blew our tiny brains and basically inspired us to set up an entire company. Hoopla’s teachers Chris Mead, Maria Peters and more were then inspired to also travel the globe to soak up as much long-form as possible and inspire the UK community.

We’re excited about it and want to encourage the continued experimentation and growth of long-form in the UK!

the future of long-form

Long-form came from the minds of hippies in the 60s and was wrapped up with beat poets, experimental theatre and rock bands. Long-form formats were never meant to be set in stone, and that’s what we believe too.

We want to inspire you to have a life long interest in long-form and be brave and experiment and create your own shows. We are constantly working to redefine modern improvisation and want you to be a part of the future of long-form!

ongoing performance opportunities and follow up courses

We have loads of ongoing performance opportunities that would be suitable for you after the course including house teams, help setting up your own group, nights to try out new ideas, jams twice a week and a full-time producer employed by us to help support you ongoing.

There’s also loads of exciting courses in our advanced improv section that would be the perfect level for you after the course. This is where we expand your improv horizons and inspire you with the full range of improv formats out there.

our teachers

Amy Cooke-Hodgson

Amy Cooke-Hodgson

Amy performs in Austentatious, one of the UK’s most successful ever improv shows with sold out performances on the West End, Edinburgh Fringe and national tour. She also performs in and directs Bumper Blyton, with sold out shows on The Edinburgh Fringe. She has also performed with the Olivier award winning Showstoppers The Improvised Musical, Abandoman, The Oxford Imps and more.

Liam Brennan, improv teacher

Liam Brennan

Liam performs in Hoopla house team Michelle, The Science of Living Things and Fright Night. Liam coaches many of our new house teams, and is co-producer of the Hoopla Improv Marathon. He trained at the University of Kent gaining a Masters in Stand-Up Comedy, as well as joining the University’s resident improv group founded by the Noise Next Door. He has trained at UCB and iO.

Katy Schutte, improv teacher

Katy Schutte

Katy performs in award winning improv troupe The Maydays and sci-fi troupe Project2. She has trained at iO Chicago, The Annoyance, UCB and Second City Chicago. She has toured with Fluxx and Baby Wants Candy, performed multiple solo shows at The Edinburgh Fringe and appeared in The London and Liverpool Improvathons. She is the author of improv book The Improviser’s Way.

Chris Mead, improv teacher

Chris Mead

Chris performs with the award winning Maydays and sci-group Project2. He has trained internationally including at iO Chicago, The Annoyance Theatre & The Hideout in Texas. He has performed at various improv festivals internationally including Austin Texas, Norway, Barcelona and Dublin. He is the co-founder of improvised theatre company Sonder, and an Artistic Director and Trustee at The Nursery Theatre. He also hosts the YesBot podcast.

what's included

We’ll be covering various long-form show formats over the course and adapt to suit the group. Please note this course focuses on free-flowing formats rather than linear narrative formats, we also do a different narrative course which is more about ongoing linear stories.

 

Core Improv Skills

  • Teamwork and support
  • Group mind
  • Listening
  • Yes And
  • Being obvious
  • Commitment
  • Spontaneity

 

Advanced Scene Work / Level 3 Recap

  • Establishing scenes
  • Object and environment work
  • Patterns and themes in scenes
  • Exploring and heightening emotions
  • Raising the FUN in scenes
  • Ending scenes

 

Character and Relationships / Level 3 Recap

  • Truth and honesty in characters
  • Finding characters through emotional and physical choices
  • Connecting emotionally and speaking from the heart

 

Long-Form Openings

  • Introduction to long-form openings
  • Monologues to inspire scenes

 

Edits

  • Sweep edits
  • Swarm edits
  • Cut-to’s

Connecting Scenes

  • Time jumps
  • Narrative connections
  • Thematic connections
  • Game connections
  • Character connections
  • Discovering themes, patterns and story as you go

 

Tags

  • Tagging to explore other sides of a character
  • Tag-runs

 

Variety of great show formats

  • Life & Times
  • La Ronde
  • Montage
  • Armando
  • Commando

 

In later courses (level 5):

  • Exploring the full diverse range of professional improv show formats including Narrative Long-Form, Improvised Theatre, Improvised Musicals, Harolds, The Deconstruction, Commedia dell’Arte and more!
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